Nan Khatai ~ Indian Shortbread Cookies
With the festive season knocking at our door, we all want to make something traditional which is also easy to make with minimum efforts. As the coming Sunday its Raksha Bandhan, I came up with an idea to make Nan Khatai at Home.
Nan Khatai is crumbly, melt in mouth cookies which have their origin in Indian and can be easily compared to the Scottish Shortbread Cookies as the ratio of flours and ghee is more as compared to sugar. This recipe of Nan Khatai is pretty simple to make and you need just 1 bowl to prepare the dough.
Eating a Nan Khatai for the first time….threw in the memories of devouring a Besan Ladoo. I must say nothing can beat the nutty taste of Besan coupled with Ghee. As a matter of fact, both these ingredients form the core part of a good Nan Khatai
There are plenty of varieties of Nan Khatai due to usage of All Purpose Flour (Maida), Gram Flour (Besan) and Semolina (Sooji) in different proportions. If you feel like you may choose to experiment with only 2 out the above mentioned 3 ingredients to get a new variation. However, your aim with the experiment should be to get the crumbly texture.
I have gone crazy with making these Nan Khatai at home. My first attempt was to know the outcome of my research about the recipe. Then I went onto making 2 more batches out of which, one is to be sent to my cousins and the other for my in-laws as we are going to visit my SILs in Pune for Rakhi.
Readily available ingredients, simple process, short preparation time….What else do you look for in any recipe??
Lets move onto the recipe to recipe without further delay.
Nan Khatai
Indian Shortbread Cookies which are fragrant, melt in mouth and uber delicious
Ingredients
- 1 cup All Purpose Flour or Maida
- 1/2 cup Gram Flour or Besan
- 2 tbsp Semolina or Sooji
- 1/2 tsp Green Cardamom Powder
- 2/3 cup Powdered Sugar approx. 85 grams
- Pinch of Salt
- 100 grams Clarified Butter or Ghee
- 1/4 cup Chopped Almonds or Pistachios
Instructions
-
Pre heat the oven at 150 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes
-
In a large bowl, Mix together All Purpose Flour, Gram Flour, Semolina, Powdered Sugar, Cardamom Powder and salt.
-
Now add the Clarified Butter or Ghee to the dry ingredients and mix in such a manner that a dough forms
-
Make small round balls out of the dough and flatten them in the shape of a pedas. You should be able to make approximately 16-18 cookies in total out of this quantity
-
Line your baking tray with a parchment/ butter paper and place the cookies on it leaving a gap of approximately 2 inch in between.
-
Add the chopped almonds on the top of the cookies such that they stick to them.
-
Bake the Nan Khatai for 18 minutes at 150 degrees Celsius.
-
Once baked, allow them to cool for at least 1 hour before serving.
-
Do store them in an airtight container. They keep well for 3-4 days.
Hope you will enjoy devouring these Nan Khatai with your loved ones. Happy Rakhi to all of you
Keep Baking!! 🙂
